During July, a group of 50 Year 9 students and seven staff from the Carramar and Duncraig campuses had the opportunity to participate in a 10-day educational tour to Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. This extensive cross-campus HASS Tour was jam-packed and everyone enjoyed the new experiences and friendships that were made.
While the Tour was bookended by visits to the MCG and Sydney Opera House, in Canberra the group attended the old Parliament and current Parliament Houses, Questacon, the National Museum, the High Court, the National War Memorial and the Australian Institute of Sport. There was even time at the Thredbo ski-fields, where the students very much enjoyed the snow. They absorbed a considerable amount of Australia’s history, culture and democracy, with education and fun going hand in hand as it should.
The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government contributes funding of $510 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.
Special thanks to Mrs Taylor, Mr Barnes, Ms Erasmus, Mr Hummerston, Ms Koutsoukos, Mr Torquato and Mr Plummer for working with the awesome students who participated in this very successful tour.
The HAAS tour in the words of our students:
“We went to Questacon and we saw things like an earthquake simulator and slide and real life lightning. It was really cool to experience very interesting science that I have not seen before. This was a good way to break up the day in more interesting sections and was a really good way to chill with friends and talk to people that I haven’t talked to before”. Rishi
“Today we got up early and headed to Old Parliament house for the morning. We got to see the original Parliament House including the old Senate room. We learnt a lot about our democratic system and read about previous Prime Ministers such as Edmund Barton. We even got the chance to role-play as senators and debate a real life example of a bill. It was a fun experience and very interesting!” Chloe
“Today we visited the new Parliament. We went on a tour to the two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. After the tour we did a few role playing activity, acting as if we were the people in the House of Representatives. We elected speakers and a prime minister (Chloe!). After this we caught an elevator to the roof top of parliament and took pictures of Canberra”. Morgan
“… at the war memorial … we split into two groups and stood in lines around the Pool of Remembrance. During the service they had talked about a man that had died in combat in WW1. After the talk about the man they played the national anthem then the last post before a one minute silence for all the soldiers that had died in ww1 and ww2”. Aiden